The present invention relates to producing apparatus for food prepared by processing fish meat, and more specifically, to an apparatus for continuously producing food in which fine filaments are formed from paste-like fish meat and a number of said filaments are bundled.
Recently, there has been proposed food in which fine filaments are formed from paste-like fish meat, and a number of the filaments are collected and bundled so as to be nearly the same as leg meat of crabs or adductors. Such food is produced by thinly stretching paste-like fish meat chemically applied with a flavor of crab meat or adductors, cutting the fish meat into fine filaments, bundling a number of said filaments to have a diameter close to leg meat of crabs or adductors, and cutting the fish meat to the length of nearly the same as the leg meat of crabs or adductors. Thus, such food resembles in appearance to the leg meat of crabs or adductors, and if one eats them, each filament gives a taste like fibers of crab meat or adductors. The crab meat or adductor are less in catch and thus costly, and on the other hand, imitation food as described above are produced using fish meat which can be caught abanduntly and therefore it is possible to inexpensively provide food having a flavor close to that of crab meat or adductors. In the production of such processed food, fish meat cut into fine filaments are collected and momentarily bundled by pressing rollers or the like, and therefore, bonding of filament-like fish meat together is not sufficient so that when a sheet of packaging paper is removed, the fish meat tend to go to pieces. Also, during the step of collecting and bundling the filament-like fish meat, the fish meat are possibly torn to pieces. To improve these disadvantages noted above, elastic materials to prevent easy tearing during the production are used and subjected to chemical treatment or the like to give a viscosity thereto, thus increasing the bonding properties. Accordingly, in said proposal, fish meat as a material used is restricted and it has been difficult to provide intended food at a low cost.
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages noted above with respect to conventional fish meat processed food, and it is an object of the invention to provide a continuous producing apparatus for fish meat processed food, which can avoid application of a force of tearing off filament-like fish meat and improve the bonding condition.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a continuous producing apparatus for fish meat processed food, comprising a solidification device for solidifying paste-like fish meat into a thin web-like fish meat, a first cutting device for cutting lengthwise the solidified fish meat to form fine filament-like fish meat, a collection device for collecting the filament-like fish meat while transporting the same, a bundling device for successively urging and fixing filaments of the collected fish meat into the desired diameter while transporting the same, a packaging device for packaging the bundled fish meat with a packaging film, and a second cutting device for cuttting the packaged fish meat into the desired axial length. The solidification device comprises a nozzle device for stretching the paste-like fish meat into a web-like fish meat, a first endless belt device for transporting the paste-like fish meat from said nozzle device, a heating device provided on said first endless belt device to heat and solidify said paste-like fish meat, and a second endless belt device having an inlet positioned slightly spaced from an outlet of said first endless belt device to cool the solidified fish meat from the first endless belt device while transporting the same at the same moving speed as that of said first endless belt device. The bundling device comprises a lower conveyor device extended in a moving direction of the collected fish meat and having a lower supporting portion which supports the lower portion of the collected fish meat, and an upper conveyor device extended on said lower conveyor device and having an upper supporting portion for pressing the collected fish meat in a direction of the lower supporting portion while successively bearing on the upper portion of the collected fish meat.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the second endless belt device of the solidification device comprises a first cooling endless belt extended on the first endless belt device and a second cooling endless belt extended slightly spaced from said first cooling endless belt, said two cooling endless belts being driven in a direction opposed to each other. With this, the solidified fish meat are transported in a zigzag fashion over the long distance, and even if the occupied area of the solidification device is reduced, the fish meat can be cooled effectively. The collection device comprises a plurality of rollers arranged spaced in a transporting direction, and a pair of conical members mounted on each roller, said conical members being arranged so that conical surfaces thereof are opposed and the distance between the opposed conical surfaces gradually decreases towards the bundling device from the collection device, said conical surfaces being brought close to each other in width to thereby collect the plurality of filament-like fish meat.
In the continuous producing apparatus for fish meat processed food in accordance with the present invention, since the distance of the transporting free portion where the paste-like fish meat heated and dried by the heating device is transferred to the cooling endless belt device is small, the paste-like fish meat is never torn off at the transporting free portion by the own weight thereof. Further, since the filament-like fish meat cut into the fine filament-like fish meat are collected and bundled without being applied with an excessive force lengthwise, th filament-like fish meat will not be torn off. In addition, the bundling device is not to bundle the filament-like fish meat momentarily as in prior arts but to bundle them by a gradually increasing urging force while taking a certain period of time, and therefore the filament like fish meat can be firmly bonded together. Moreover, the bundled fish meat are immediately packaged with a packaging film and thus the bundling effect may be further enhanced and the bundling state may be maintained. Accordingly, the fish meat processed food produced by the apparatus of the present invention has a strong bundling force the extent that they are not easily loosened and resembles to natural leg meat of crabs or adductors in cooking as well as taste. As mentioned hereinbefore, the lengthwise force is not applied to the filament-like fish meat, and therefore, fish of high quality having a high elasticity need not be used. Thus, it is possible to use cheap fish to provide processed fish meat products at a low cost.